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Japan Travel News: New Flight Cancellation Policies

Were you planning a Japan trip? Many airlines are offering travel waivers, re-booking, or cancellations with limited or no change fees for flights serving Japan in the next few weeks. Many of these options have a limited window of opportunity so it's best to get informed now. Contact your airline directly to discuss your options.
While it may be difficult to predict what will happen in a few weeks, Japan's power, transportation, and communications systems have all been affected by the earthquake and tsunami—plus there are many concerns about radiation levels from nuclear power plants. At this writing, the current U.S. travel warning (expiring April 1) says "The Department of State requests all non-emergency official U.S. government personnel defer travel to Japan and urges U.S. citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Japan at this time." Read full text.

From the Forums

Here are some thoughts on whether or not to change Japan plans, from well-traveled members on our Asia Forum.
"Right now (that is, this week) is pretty certainly not the time to be visiting Japan, as much as one would want to show support for the country." —rizzuto
"I keep telling myself 'it will be better by then' but now I'm starting to wonder . . . Yes, we were planning to go mid-April, but I would like to decide in the next week or so." —Kristina
"After much thought and back and forth, we've decided to forgo our trip to Japan in early April to a later date (possibly next year?)" —filmwill
"I'm up in the air also as I am supposed to leave in a little over two weeks - even though I am going straight to Kyoto . . . I will end up in Tokyo for a couple of days - that will be almost the middle of April."—Mara
"We have been planning a 5-week May/June trip for several months . . . We're pretty patient (love that British "keep calm and carry on" attitude) and usually take a wait-and-see approach . . .[but] we regretfully decided tonight to cancel the northern Honshu part of our trip"—aprillilacs
Are you changing your upcoming Japan plans?

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My son and I have his high school graduation trip planned from June 5th-21st in Japan. We are waiting to see what happens daily and since we are flying with Continental we are also waiting to see what they do with our flights. I have told him to come up with alternative countries to visit, unfortunately. We have been looking forward to going to Japan, but we are so sad to see what the Japanese people are going through right now!